Not the whole drawing, just the first blocking layer on the face. I caught myself doing it last night around eleven, mouthing numbers, and I got to somewhere in the forties before I noticed what I was doing and stopped.

It started as a way to keep myself from overworking. If I know a layer took me nine minutes I can leave it alone. But now it's turned into a little ritual I can't skip, and when I forget where I was I have to start the count over, which is silly because the drawing doesn't know anything about it.

The portrait on the easel is a woman I've done twice already. Third time. First two are in the drawer and stay there. Toned grey paper, mostly burnt sienna and a bit of a pale blue in the shadows of the neck, and last night the jaw finally did what I wanted and I sat there with my hand still holding the pastel in the air like an idiot, not wanting to touch it again.

Anyway. Does anyone else have one of these small pointless habits that started as a useful trick and now just runs you? I would like to hear that I am not the only one talking to myself in numbers at midnight 🙂